MODERN  PAGANS 


CHARLES     M.  SHELDON 


Ik 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Prof.  Clifford  H.  Prator 


" 


fi 


MODERN  PAGANS 


BY 
CHARLES  M.   SHELDON 

Author  of  In  His  Steps 


THE  METHODIST  BOOK  CONCERN 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
CHARLES  M.  SHELDON 


First  Edition  Printed  August,  1917 
Reprinted  March,  1920 


PS 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  I 

PAQB 

The  Modern  Pagan  in  His  Home 5 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Modern  Evangelist  and  His  Critics.  .  .   25 

CHAPTER  III 

The  Pagan  and  the  Meetings 42 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Power  of  the  Spirit 60 


862056 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  MODERN  PAGAN  IN  HIS 
HOME 

It  is  easy  to  be  "civilized"  and  at  the  same  time  Godless. 

MR.  RALPH  WALLACE  sat  reading 
the  evening  paper,  and  as  his  custom 
was,  making  comments  on  his  reading 
to  his  wife  across  the  table.  Like  hun- 
dreds of  other  husbands  in  Westville,  he 
wanted  the  daily  first  of  all  the  family, 
but  unlike  very  many,  he  did  not  insist 
on  going  off  somewhere  to  devour  it 
alone. 

"The  Woman's  Federation  is  after 
Mr.  Bryan  again,  Lucy.  They  passed 
a  resolution  at  their  meeting  yesterday 
voting  him  to  be  prejudiced."  Mr. 
Wallace  chuckled  as  he  glanced  at 
his  wife.  Mrs.  Wallace  was  a  placid, 
self-contained  woman,  and  she  simply 
smiled  and  said:  "I  didn't  vote  either 
5 


6          MODERN  PAGANS 

way.  The  discussion  did  not  interest 
me." 

Mr.  Wallace  was  back  in  the  paper. 

"Another  wreck  on  the  F.  and  G.  W. 
Six  killed  and  nine  injured.  That  road 
ought  to  run  a  wrecking  outfit  and  a 
hospital  on  every  regular  passenger 
train  to  save  time.  That  makes  four 
wrecks  on  the  F.  and  G.  W.  inside  two 
weeks." 

"It's  dreadful,  isn't  it?"  Mrs.  Wal- 
lace murmured  as  she  took  another  sock 
out  of  her  bag  of  mending.  "I  wonder 
that  the  public  continues  to  ride  at  all 
over  that  road." 

"O,  they  don't  care.  Life  is  cheap 
nowadays  and  the  railroads  know  it. 
There's  another  riot  in  Tokio  over  the 
peace  negotiations.  Men  are  not  far 
from  the  brute  after  all  they  brag  of 
their  civilization."  Mr.  Wallace  turned 
the  paper  over  and  at  that  moment  the 
oldest  boy  in  the  family  came  into  the 
sitting  room  and  picked  up  a  pile  of 
books  on  the  reading  table.  His  father 


MODERN  PAGANS  7 

looked  at  him  pleasantly  and  said, 
"How  does  college  go,  Harry?" 

"All  right,"  the  boy  answered,  good- 
naturedly.  "The  profs,  seem  to  think  I 
haven't  anything  else  to  do  but  study, 
and  each  one  of  them  acts  as  if  his  were 
the  only  study  worth  while,  but  I  guess 
I'm  good  for  them.  So  here  goes  for 
three  hours."  The  stalwart  fellow 
caught  up  the  books,  leaped  upstairs  to 
his  room  three  steps  at  a  time,  and  his 
father  and  mother  could  hear  him  bolt 
his  door,  prepared  to  shut  out  his 
brother  John  or  any  visiting  chum  who 
might  call. 

"Do  you  think  Harry  is  studying  too 
hard?"  Mrs.  Wallace  asked,  a  little 
anxiously. 

Mr.  Wallace  looked  up  from  the 
paper  and  smiled. 

"What!  That  young  ox!  He's 
sound  as  a  race  horse.  You  ought  to 
have  seen  him  at  the  football  game 
Saturday.  He  isn't  suffering  any  from 
brain  fag.  Don't  worry.  Study  is  good 


8  MODERN  PAGANS 

for  the  young  rascal.  I  hope  the  profs, 
will  lay  it  on  good  and  hard." 

"I  wish  he  didn't  play  football,"  Mrs. 
Wallace  said,  gravely.  "I  wonder, 
Ralph,  that  you  are  willing." 

Mr.  Wallace  did  not  reply.  There 
was  a  mild  difference  of  opinion  over  the 
subject  in  the  Wallace  family.  It  was 
not  very  deep  or  serious,  but  it  was  a 
difference,  and  Mr.  Wallace  took  the 
ground  that  it  was  useless  to  argue  with 
a  woman,  and  seldom  did  so.  But  he 
respected  his  wife's  views  and  was  sorry 
she  did  not  see  the  matter  as  he  did. 

He  was  still  silently  reading  when 
Agnes,  the  older  girl,  came  in  from  the 
music  room  where  she  had  been  practic- 
ing. 

"Where's  Harry,  mother?"  she  said. 
"I  want  to  ask  him  some  questions  about 
the  trigonometry  for  to-morrow." 

"He's  in  his  room,  dear.  He  just 
went  up  there." 

"O,  well,  it's  no  use  then,"  Agnes 
spoke  in  a  tone  of  disappointment. 


MODERN  PAGANS  9 

"You  know,  mother,  you  could  pound 
the  door  down  and  he  wouldn't  answer." 

"I  think  he  would  if  anybody  tried," 
Mr.  Wallace  said  with  a  chuckle. 
"What  is  it  ?  Maybe  I  can  help  you  ?" 

"I  don't  believe  you  can,"  Agnes  said 
in  some  doubt  of  her  father's  mathemat- 
ical ability. 

"Show  it  to  me,  young  lady.  What 
did  I  go  to  Williams  for?" 

The  girl  smiled  and  came  up  to  her 
father  with  the  textbook  which  she 
picked  up  off  the  table. 

"O!  Original  propositions!  Young 
lady,  that's  not  fair.  You  don't  mean 
to  say  you  have  tackled  that  sort  of 
thing!" 

"I  do,  though.  Now  then,  pater,  if 
you  think  college  is  easy  these  days, 
work  out  one  of  them." 

"No,  thank  you.  Give  me  something 
easier." 

The  girl  laughed.  "I  knew  you 
couldn't  do  it,  pater.  There's  no  one  in 
the  family  can  help  me  except  Harry, 


10         MODERN  PAGANS 

and  I  don't  want  to  disturb  him 
now." 

"How  would  I  do?"  a  voice  asked  as 
the  other  brother,  John,  came  into  the 
room  from  the  hallway. 

"You  haven't  time,"  Agnes  said, 
doubtfully. 

"Then  I'll  make  some,"  said  John, 
good-naturedly.  "Let  me  see  it,  sis. 
Um — the  problem  of  determining  the 
values  of  the  nth  roots  of  unity  is  equiv- 
alent to  the  geometrical  problem  of 
inscribing  a  regular  polygon  of  n  sides 
in  a  circle.  What  you  want  to  do  is  to 
find  the  three  cube  roots  of  unity.  Now, 
Gauss  has  shown  in  his  Disquisitions 
Arithmetical  this  can  only  be  done  with 
a  compass  and  ruler  when  n  is  a  prime  of 
the  form  2P  plus  1.  Therefore—" 

"O,  say  that  again.  I  don't  just  get 
it  through  my  stupid  head,"  cried 
Agnes,  her  pencil  at  her  lips  and  a 
severe  frown  on  her  brow. 

"N  must  be  a  prime  form  of  2P  plus 
1.  You  can't  find  the  three  cube  roots 


MODERN  PAGANS         11 

of  unity  without  inscribing  a  polygon  in 
the  circle.  Do  you  understand  that?" 

"Yes,  I  understand  that.  But  why 
do  I  want  to  find  the  three  cube  roots  of 
unity?" 

"Why,  you  goose,  that  is  the  proposi- 
tion," John  roared.  "Come  upstairs.  I 
can  make  you  see  it  all  right  before  I  go 
downtown.  Mother,  I'm  going  after 
that  yarn  you  wanted.  I  forgot  it  last 
time.  I'll  be  back  before  nine." 

"You  needn't  trouble  about  it,  John," 
his  mother  replied,  affectionately.  "It 
will  break  into  your  studies  to  go  down 
to-night." 

"And  serve  me  right  for  not  remem- 
bering. I'll  go  on  my  wheel  in  a  jiffy." 

The  brother  and  sister  went  upstairs 
where  John  had  a  wall  blackboard  in  his 
room,  and  Mr.  Wallace  again  resumed 
his  paper  reading  which  had  been  inter- 
rupted. After  a  few  minutes  of  silence 
he  looked  up  again. 

"So  they're  planning  to  start  a  revival 
here  this  fall,  and  I  suppose  the  business 


12         MODERN  PAGANS 

men  will  be  asked  to  subscribe  to  the 
fund  for  evangelistic  expenses.  Excuse 
me." 

"When  is  the  revival  to  begin?"  asked 
Mrs.  Wallace,  with  a  little  show  of  in- 
terest. 

"Well,  I'll  read  you  the  announce- 
ment," Mr.  Wallace  replied,  and  went 
right  on  reading  from  the  paper. 

"Beginning  next  week,  the  revival 
meetings  which  have  been  planned  by 
the  churches  for  the  last  two  months 
will  start  in  the  different  sections  of  the 
city  as  advertised.  Mr.  Ambrose 
Spencer  will  have  charge  of  the  central 
district  and  much  interest  is  being 
shown  in  his  appearance  and  in  his 
methods.  Notice  of  the  other  speakers 
and  singers  will  be  found  in  the  column 
of  religious  news  for  the  week.  The  ex- 
penses for  these  meetings  are  being  met 
by  pledges  voluntarily  made  by  the 
churches.  It  is  estimated  that  from 
$2,000  to  $2,500  a  week  will  cover  the 
expenses  for  the  campaign." 


MODERN  PAGANS          13 

"That's  what  I  call  extravagance." 
Mr.  Wallace  elevated  his  brows  and 
there  was  a  trace  of  a  sneer  on  his  lip. 
"I  never  heard  yet  of  one  of  those  evan- 
gelists who  wasn't  a  grafter.  Trust 
them  to  work  the  revival  dodge  for  all 
it  is  worth.  Remember  Rollins,  the  last 
professional  evangelist  gospel  crank  we 
had  here?  He  got  seventeen  hundred 
dollars  from  the  faithful  for  five  weeks' 
work.  I  call  it  pretty  good  pay  for  one 
man,  considering  the  fact  that  he  not 
only  didn't  do  the  town  any  good  but 
actually  did  it  a  lot  of  harm.  I  suppose 
I'll  be  called  on  to  subscribe  liberally  to 
Mr.  Ambrose  Spencer's  tidy  little  sal- 
ary. All  the  business  men  catch  it  from 
every  little  thing  that  comes  along.  But 
if  I  give  anything  to  help  this  revival,  it 
will  be  in  my  sleep." 

"Perhaps  this  revivalist  is  not  like 
others  we've  had  here,"  Mrs.  Wallace 
remarked,  indifferently.  "The  papers 
have  spoken  well  of  him." 

"They  are  all  alike,"  rejoined  Mr. 


14,         MODERN  PAGANS 

Wallace,  shortly.  "It's  all  excitement 
and  froth  and  hullabaloo  and  vulgar  ap- 
peals to  emotion,  and  when  it's  all  over 
nothing  to  show  for  it.  I  think  the 
whole  thing  is  a  nuisance  and  I  don't 
give  a  cent  to  help  it  along." 

Mrs.  Wallace  did  not  appear  to  be 
much  interested,  not  enough  at  least  to 
make  any  reply,  and  her  husband  turned 
to  the  paper  again.  During  a  silence  of 
a  few  minutes  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
describe  a  little  more  in  detail  this  Wal- 
lace family. 

Mr.  Wallace  was  a  merchant  with  a 
good  business  which  brought  him  an 
income  of  $18,000  or  $20,000  a  year. 
He  carried  $10,000  insurance;  owned  his 
home,  which  was  a  well-furnished  resi- 
dence, besides  paying  taxes  on  consider- 
able valuable  real  estate  in  the  city.  He 
was  a  member  of  several  lodges,  but  sel- 
dom attended  the  meetings,  being  a 
great  lover  of  home.  He  was  an  en- 
thusiastic politician,  especially  during 
the  State  and  national  campaigns,  but 


MODERN  PAGANS         15 

he  was  never  known  to  take  any  interest 
in  municipal  or  county  affairs,  and, 
indeed,  quite  often  expressed  his  decided 
disgust  at  the  rottenness  of  local  poli- 
tics. He  regarded  the  prohibitory  law 
as  a  great  mistake  and  had  been  heard 
often  to  say  that  business  needed  the 
saloon  to  make  things  lively.  In  his 
personal  habits  he  was  a  total  abstainer 
so  far  as  liquor  was  concerned,  but  an 
almost  habitual  smoker.  His  cigar  bill 
for  the  past  year  had  amounted  to  $215. 
To  be  sure,  he  always  bought  the  most 
expensive  of  all  brands  and  was  very 
liberal  with  friends.  And  also  he  saved 
at  other  points,  notably  in  his  refusal 
to  subscribe  to  the  State  Temperance 
Union  and  in  his  economizing  of  church 
and  Sunday  school  expenses.  He  never 
attended  church  himself,  preferring  to 
read  his  Sunday  paper  or  a  good  novel, 
but  he  did  not  object  to  his  wife  going, 
and  would  have  been  strangely  discon- 
certed if  his  children  had  not  attended 
Sunday  school,  especially  when  they 


10         MODERN  PAGANS 

were  little.  "But  there's  no  use  in 
squandering  money,  Lucy,"  he  would 
say.  "The  church  is  always  begging,  al- 
ways passing  a  contribution  box.  Let 
the  children  take  a  penny  apiece,  that's 
enough.  And  I  suppose  we  can  afford 
to  chip  in  twenty-five  cents  a  Sunday  on 
the  church  pledge.  Ministers  have  to 
live,  and  the  church  on  the  whole  does 
more  good  than  harm,  but  a  mighty 
poor,  dull  sort  of  an  institution,  I  take 
it.  I  can  get  more  good  out  of  a  good 
book  than  I  can  out  of  a  hundred  ser- 
mons." 

So  for  years  the  Wallace  children  and 
their  mother  had  attended  Sunday 
school  and  church  with  their  pennies 
and  their  twenty-five  cents  a  week  and 
had  grown  up  to  think  of  the  church  as 
an  institution  that  must  somehow  be 
supported  with  pennies  and  quarters, 
which  people  gave,  not  as  an  obligation, 
but  doled  out  as  a  condescending  act  of 
charity.  Mr.  Wallace  was  rather  glad 
to  have  the  house  to  himself  Sunday 


MODERN  PAGANS         17 

morning.  He  liked  the  quiet  hour  or 
two  for  his  Sunday  paper  and  his  cigar. 
Then  the  family  gathered  for  a  big 
dinner  at  half  past  one,  to  which  of  late 
years  a  business  friend  was  invited  or 
one  of  Agnes's  or  Harry's  college  mates. 
Mr.  Wallace  wore  out  the  balance  of 
Sunday  by  getting  his  mail  or  of  late 
years  by  a  spin  out  into  the  country  in 
his  new  automobile.  In  the  evening  he 
smoked  again  over  a  book  or  occasion- 
ally invited  in  two  or  three  friends  for  a 
game  of  whist.  Monday  morning  he 
was  ready  for  business  again,  punctual 
and  early.  A  man  of  no  vices  or  dissi- 
pation so  called,  the  community  classed 
him  as  a  successful  business  man,  and 
when  he  died  the  daily  papers  would 
print  his  picture  together  with  a  two- 
column  obituary  reciting  his  moral  vir- 
tues and  pointing  him  to  young  men  as 
an  example  of  what  thrift,  enterprise, 
and  shrewdness  can  accomplish.  In 
other  words,  a  twentieth-century  pagan, 
about  as  selfish  as  they  are  made,  of 


18         MODERN  PAGANS 

whom  there  are  thousands  in  the  United 
States  to-day. 

Mrs.  Wallace  was,  as  we  have  said,  of 
a  placid  temperament,  a  woman  five 
years  younger  than  her  husband.  She 
had  married  young,  and  at  forty-six  was 
a  good-looking,  good-natured  person 
with  considerable  pride  in  her  children 
and  husband  and  no  particular  enthusi- 
asm or  ambition.  She  belonged  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church  and  was  a  member 
of  three  clubs — one  musical,  one  liter- 
ary, and  one  domestic  science.  Toward 
these  clubs  she  maintained  an  attitude 
of  mild  interest,  which,  however,  seldom 
rose  any  higher.  She  was  a  regular 
church  attendant  except  at  the  prayer 
meeting,  where  she  was  never  seen. 
Whenever  there  was  a  supper  or  a  fair 
or  a  social  function,  Mrs.  Wallace 
could  be  counted  on  to  do  her  share  with 
good-natured  willingness.  She  had  in 
turn  directed  her  three  children  througli 
the  Sunday  school,  from  which  they  had 
received  the  only  Bible  instruction  they 


MODERN  PAGANS         19 

ever  had.  The  Bible  was  never  read  or 
studied  in  the  Wallace  home,  and  as  the 
children  grew  older  they  had  gradually 
dropped  out  of  the  Sunday  school  alto- 
gether, with  only  a  feeble  remonstrance 
from  their  mother  and  with  almost  posi- 
tive agreement  on  the  part  of  their 
father. 

"O,  what  is  the  use  of  their  being  tied 
down  to  the  Sunday  school  any  longer, 
Lucy  ?  Let  them  have  freedom  in  their 
religious  life  of  all  places.  Agnes  says 
her  teacher  isn't  interesting,  and  Harry 
can't  stand  the  superintendent  they 
have  now.  Don't  compel  them  to  go 
to  church.  That's  what  set  me  against 
the  tvhole  thing." 

So  the  religious  life  of  the  Wallace 
family  trailed  off  into  a  sort  of  negative 
sweetened- water  kind  of  morality  minus 
passion,  self-sacrifice,  or  enthusiasm. 
Mrs.  Wallace  had  her  moments  of 
vague  dissatisfaction  with  it  all.  Her 
inner  life  was  barren  of  positive  convic- 
tions, and  there  were  times  when  she 


20         MODERN  PAGANS 

could  not  help  wishing  for  something 
more  real  and  satisfying  for  herself,  her 
husband,  and  her  children.  But  it  was 
easy  to  drift  along  and  enjoy  life  in  a 
happy-go-easy  fashion.  Her  husband 
gave  her  a  liberal  allowance  for  house- 
hold expenses,  for  amusements,  dress, 
etc.  Her  children  were  not  dissipated ; 
they  were  good  natured  for  the  most 
part,  they  bade  fair  to  be  successful  in 
their  career.  She  was  not  alarmed 
about  anything  in  particular.  She  saw 
no  reason  why  they  should  be  too  reli- 
gious. So  the  time  came  when  she  took 
for  granted  the  situation  in  which  she 
found  herself  alone  in  her  attendance 
on  church  services  and  church  work, 
with  her  own  interest  oftener  nominal 
than  real,  and  the  tie  that  bound  her  to 
the  church  so  slender  that  it  required 
only  a  slight  tension  to  break  it  alto- 
gether. Do  you  know  this  woman? 
There  are  a  good  many  like  her  in  the 
United  States.  They  are  the  negative 
factor  in  religious  service.  They  add 


MODERN  PAGANS         21 

heaviness,  not  weight,  to  the  kingdom  of 
God  on  the  earth. 

As  for  the  Wallace  children  at  the 
time  of  this  story,  they  were  like  hun- 
dreds of  others  in  their  development  and 
outlook  on  life  where  the  home  environ- 
ment had  been  the  same.  Harry  was 
twenty-one,  a  perfect  physical  animal, 
absorbed  for  three  months  of  his  college 
year  in  football,  with  enough  ambition 
in  his  studies  to  keep  him  about  in  the 
middle  of  his  class,  neither  brilliant  nor 
stupid,  with  a  blind  worship  for  phys- 
ical prowess  and  a  mild  contempt  for 
weakness  of  any  kind,  and  his  mother's 
easy-going  temperament  which  could 
readily  accept  any  indifferent  habit  reli- 
giously if  not  morally.  He  was  in  his 
sophomore  year  and  had  begun  to  think 
about  studying  medicine  for  his  life- 
work.  Agnes  was  one  year  younger 
than  Harry,  a  girl  of  generous  impulses, 
but  selfish  in  the  extreme  when  it  suited 
her  convenience.  She  was  like  her 
father  in  her  habit  of  open  and  constant 


22         MODERN  PAGANS 

criticism  of  people  and  things  she  did 
not  like.  On  that  account  she  was  not 
popular  in  college,  and  wondered  why 
her  friends  were  so  few  and  why  so 
many  of  the  girls  said  such  sharp  things 
to  her  and  about  her.  One  of  her  griev- 
ances as  she  passed  through  college  was 
the  fact  that  she  had  never  been  elected 
to  any  of  the  class  offices.  Secretly  she 
was  ambitious  in  that  direction,  and  one 
time  her  brother  John  surprised  her  cry- 
ing hard  over  the  result  of  a  class  elec- 
tion in  which  Agnes's  bitterest  enemy 
was  chosen  by  an  overwhelming  vote  as 
class  president. 

"She's  the  meanest  girl  in  college," 
Agnes  sobbed. 

"Who  is?"  asked  John,  sympathet- 
ically. 

"Miss  Barclay.  The  meanest,  most 
horrid  creature.  And  now  she's  class 
president.  She'll  be  so  stuck  up  there 
will  be  no  living  with  her." 

"Do  you  have  to  live  with  her?"  John 
asked,  incautiously. 


MODERN  PAGANS         23 

"No,  I  don't,"  snapped  Agnes. 

"I  don't  see  the  hardship,"  said  John, 
a  little  maliciously.  "Miss  Barclay 
strikes  me  as  a  very  pretty  girl." 

"You  must  have  queer  taste,"  ex- 
claimed Agnes. 

"Uncultivated,  Professor  Turner 
says.  But  it's  the  best  I've  got  so  far 
and  I  had  always  supposed  Miss  Bar- 
clay was  pretty.  But  if  you  say  she's 
horrid,  I  suppose  that  settles  it.  You 
have  studied  ethics  and  I  haven't." 

"Go  away,"  snapped  Agnes.  "You're 
horrid  like  all  the  rest!" 

John  Wallace  was  the  odd  one  of  the 
family.  He  was  absolutely  independ- 
ent and  went  and  came  a  rule  to  himself. 
He  was  only  eighteen  years  old,  but  the 
one  member  of  the  family  gifted  with 
some  real  intellectual  insight.  He  had 
a  mathematical  intuition  of  which  even 
Harry  took  account,  which  in  part  com- 
pensated him  for  a  rather  frail  body  un- 
fitted for  the  hurly-burly  of  athletics. 
He  seldom  went  to  church  and  had  few 


24         MODERN  PAGANS 

companions.  His  affections  seemed  to 
go  out  almost  wholly  toward  his  mother, 
and  she  returned  them  as  much  as  her 
mild  disposition  allowed. 

This,  then,  was  the  character  of  the 
Wallace  family  in  Westville  on  the 
night  when  Ambrose  Spencer  began  his 
services  in  that  town. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  MODERN  EVANGELIST 
AND  HIS  CRITICS 

Criticism  is  not  always  knowledge,  and  judgment 
of  others  is  seldom  justice. 

THE  modern  evangelist  is  one  of  the 
most  criticised  men  in  the  world  to-day. 
He  suffers  by  comparison  with  every 
cheap  and  sensational  man  who  makes 
evangelism  merely  a  professional  work. 
Ambrose  Spencer  knew  this  very  well 
when  he  left  a  large  and  influential 
church  in  response  to  what  he  considered 
a  large  call.  When  he  stood  up  at  that 
first  meeting  in  Westville  he  felt  what 
he  had  felt  many  times  before — the  pres- 
ence of  a  large  number  of  critical  people 
who  had  come  out  not  to  receive  the 
bread  of  life,  but  to  see  if  they  liked  the 
way  in  which  the  bread  was  made. 

Half  way  through  the  service  Am- 
brose Spencer  noted  two  young  men 

25 


26         MODERN  PAGANS 

seated  in  the  very  center  of  the  house. 
They  happened  to  be  surrounded  by 
groups  of  older  men  and  the  contrast 
with  their  wide-awake,  earnest  faces 
was  sharp  and  distinct.  One  of  these 
young  men  was  Harry  Wallace.  How 
he  came  to  be  present  at  this  first 
meeting  of  the  evangelist  is  a  little  story 
by  itself.  Briefly,  his  football  captain, 
Norman  Fairview,  had  invited  him  to 
go.  Fairview  was  a  college  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
man  active  in  the  Association  and  with- 
out a  particle  of  cant  or  goody-goodness 
about  him.  He  was  the  strongest  man 
in  college,  stood  well  in  his  classes,  and 
Wallace  admired  him  immensely  with- 
out understanding  in  the  least  Fair- 
view's  religious  nature.  So  when  the 
captain  that  afternoon  on  the  ball 
ground  after  practice  slapped  Wallace 
on  the  back  and  said,  "Don't  you  want 
to  go  down  with  me  to  Spencer's  meet- 
ing to-night,  old  man?"  Wallace  had 
felt  complimented  and  agreed  to  meet 
Fairview  at  his  room  and  go  along  down 


MODERN  PAGANS         27 

with  him.  He  did  not  say  anything  at 
home  about  his  plan  for  the  evening,  but 
simply  said  he  was  going  out.  It  was 
not  because  he  was  afraid  of  opposition 
or  ridicule,  but  he  simply  did  not  care 
to  say  anything  about  it,  thinking  to 
himself  as  he  went  out:  "It's  only  one 
night.  I  can't  afford  to  go  any  more 
with  all  my  term  work  piling  up."  He 
was  behind  somewhat  in  his  classes,  and 
with  football  practice  for  a  big  college 
game  in  prospect,  was  very  busy. 

As  the  service  went  on  he  began  to 
grow  uncomfortable.  At  first  he  had 
sat  there  mildly  critical  of  the  singing 
and  the  notices  and  a  number  of  little 
things  that  seemed  not  in  the  best  taste. 
As  that  gradually  wore  off  he  found 
himself  compelled  to  listen  to  the  evan- 
gelist, who  began  to  speak  in  a  very 
simple,  direct  manner,  without  dramatic 
effort  or  affectation.  Fairview  had 
whispered  to  him  at  the  moment  Spencer 
rose  to  preach:  "Fine-looking  fellow, 
isn't  he?  Strongest  man  in  Amherst  in 


28         MODERN  PAGANS 

eighty-nine."  That  made  Wallace  look 
at  Spencer  with  double  interest.  Cer- 
tainly, the  man  was  a  fine  specimen 
physically.  He  had  a  pleasing  voice 
and  an  attractive  manner.  Gradually 
these  things  vanished  from  Wallace's 
mind  as  the  things  the  evangelist  kept 
saying  found  place  there.  His  subject 
was  personal  individual  religious  expe- 
rience. He  used  many  illustrations  to 
show  how  a  man  could  not  be  saved 
simply  because  he  was  a  part  of  a  good 
civilization.  He  must  of  his  own  accord, 
of  his  own  will,  and  of  his  own  expe- 
rience eat  the  bread  of  life.  Just  as  no 
man  can  eat  physical  food  for  another, 
so  no  man  can  put  himself  in  another 
man's  place  religiously.  His  spiritual 
life  must  grow  up  in  him,  a  distinct,  per- 
sonal, real,  conscious,  saving  thing,  all 
his  own. 

"It  is  a  fair  question,  young  men," 
Spencer  said  eagerly,  for  the  first  time 
noting  the  faces  of  Wallace  and  Fair- 
view  and  speaking  in  that  personal, 


MODERN  PAGANS         29 

direct  way  which  was  a  marked  char- 
acteristic of  his  evangelism,  "it  is  a  fair 
question  to  ask  if  you  have  any  religious 
experience,  and  if  not  why  not?  Who 
is  Master  in  your  life?  What  is  the 
compelling  and  impelling  motive  that 
governs  your  most  enthusiastic  and 
ambitious  moments  ?  What  is  the  great 
thing  for  you?  Is  it  physical  strength? 
Is  it  intellect  or  art?  Is  it  love  of 
money?  Is  it  thirst  for  fame?  Is  it 
search  for  pleasure?  What  is  the  First 
of  life?  What  would  you  fight  the 
hardest  for,  or  lose  sleep  for  the  longest  ? 
What  is  the  object  of  your  most  pas- 
sionate hate  or  love?  In  other  words, 
what  is  your  God,  before  whom  you 
burn  your  incense  and  in  whose  presence 
you  are  willing  to  take  off  your  shoes 
and  heap  high  the  altar  of  sacrifice?  I 
say  these  are  fair  questions  to  ask,  and  I 
want  you  to  ask  them  of  yourselves. 
For  the  possession  of  a  true,  deep,  joy- 
ful, religious  experience  which  is  your 
own  marks  the  difference  between  a 


30         MODERN  PAGANS 

soul  that  exists  for  self  and  a  soul  that 
exists  for  service."  So  he  went  on  for 
half  an  hour  emphasizing  the  one  point 
that  a  person's  real  life  was  never  de- 
veloped and  could  never  grow  until 
there  was  a  real,  passionate,  positive 
mastery  of  the  life  by  the  Divine  Force 
which  alone  made  all  action  of  the  soul 
full  of  meaning  and  power. 

When  he  finally  closed  he  did  it  so 
suddenly  that  Wallace  was  not  expect- 
ing it.  In  fact,  he  was  confused  by  the 
abrupt  transition  from  the  sermon  to 
the  prayer.  That  in  itself  was  a  brief 
petition  of  only  four  or  five  sentences, 
but  it  was  specially  tender  in  its  longing 
desire  for  all  young  life  that  it  might 
know  the  master  hand  of  the  Divine  laid 
upon  its  human  loves  and  will  and  ambi- 
tion and  desire. 

After  the  prayer  Wallace  waited  for 
the  regular  evangelistic  appeal  for  deci- 
sion which  he  understood  was  the  usual 
method  employed  by  all  evangelists. 
He  had  gone  to  one  of  Rollin's  meetings 


MODERN  PAGANS         31 

two  years  before  when  the  same  appeal 
was  made  every  night  that  was  made 
when  he  was  present.  But  Evangelist 
Spencer  simply  told  the  people  they 
were  free  to  go  at  any  time  during  the 
singing,  only  asking  those  to  remain 
who  wished  to  confer  with  him  about  the 
Christian  life. 

The  people  stood  up  and  Fairview 
glanced  quietly  at  Wallace  as  different 
groups  began  to  go  out. 

"No,  I'm  not  going  to  stay,"  Wal- 
lace said,  but  Fairview  had  not  spoken 
a  word.  They  passed  out  together  and 
walked  along  for  a  while  in  silence. 

"It  was  a  good,  square  talk,"  said 
Fairview,  speaking  in  his  sturdy 
fashion.  "I  like  Spencer.  He's  healthy 
in  his  mind." 

"Yes,  I  liked  him,"  said  Wallace, 
slowly.  It  was  a  good  deal  for  him  to 
say. 

Fairview  was  a  man  of  few  words  at 
any  time.  But  his  own  religious  expe- 
rience was  a  very  real  and  joyful  thing 


32         MODERN  PAGANS 

to  him,  and  it  would  not  have  been  na- 
tural for  him  if  he  had  not  said  a  few 
words  more. 

"You  won't  think  I  am  meddling  in 
what  does  not  belong  to  me,  old  man, 
will  you,  if  I  tell  you  I  have  been  hop- 
ing you  might  get  some  real  thing  out 
of  these  meetings,  something  that  would 
make  the  Christian  life  a  real  personal 
thing  to  you?" 

It  was  a  simple  thing  to  say,  yet  there 
were  probably  not  half  a  dozen  men  in 
the  whole  college  who  could  have  said 
it  to  Wallace  without  rousing  his  anger 
or  disgust.  In  fact,  it  was  the  first  time 
in  all  his  life  that  anyone  had  ever  said 
a  word  to  him  about  personal  religion. 
His  father  had  never  dreamed  of  such  a 
thing,  his  mother  had  never  dared.  That 
sounds  strange,  but  it  is  the  truth.  This 
woman,  who  was  a  nominal  Christian, 
who  belonged  to  a  church,  had  never  felt 
enough  of  the  real  life  of  a  real  Chris- 
tian to  talk  about  it  in  a  natural  way  to 
her  own  children.  And  as  the  years 


MODERN  PAGANS         33 

passed  on  and  they  had  grown  up,  she 
had  become  afraid  to  mention  the  matter 
to  them.  When  such  conditions  are  not 
uncommon  in  what  we  call  good  families 
in  America,  is  it  any  wonder  that  there 
is  a  great  number  of  men  and  women  in 
our  civilization  who  have  no  use  for 
prayer  or  churches  or  enthusiasm  for 
missions,  or,  to  say  the  last  word,  for 
God  himself?  For  what  is  a  lack  of  per- 
sonal religious  experience  but  a  real 
lack  of  knowledge  of  God  and  of  one's 
own  soul? 

The  two  young  men  walked  along 
through  the  night  for  several  minutes 
before  Wallace  spoke.  His  face  was 
flaming  and  he  was  glad  of  the  darkness. 

"Why,  no,  I  don't  consider  it  med- 
dling. But  the  whole  thing  is  mighty 
unreal  to  me.  I  don't  see  anything  in 
it." 

"Wish  I  could  help,"  was  all  Fair- 
view  ventured  to  say.  They  had  reached 
a  corner  where  the  street  to  Fairview's 
room  branched  off  from  Wallace's  way 


34         MODERN  PAGANS 

home.  There  was  almost  an  awkward 
moment.  Fairview  laid  a  hand  on  Wal- 
lace's arm. 

"Well,  good  night,  old  man.  God 
could  do  great  things  with  you  if  you 
would  only  let  him." 

Wallace  did  not  reply  to  this  except 
to  say  good  night,  and  they  parted 
abruptly,  Wallace  on  reaching  home 
going  directly  to  his  room,  although 
Agnes  and  John  were  in  the  sitting 
room  as  he  came  in.  He  bolted  his  door 
as  he  very  often  did  and  sat  down  to  his 
table  to  study. 

It  was  nearly  ten  o'clock,  but  he  had 
never  felt  more  wide-awake.  It  was  not 
at  all  true  that  he  was  "under  convic- 
tion," as  we  say  in  the  old  phraseology, 
for  which  we  have  not  yet  found  any 
satisfactory  substitute.  There  was  a 
mingling  of  mental  disturbance  to- 
gether with  more  or  less  irritation.  For 
a  few  minutes  he  sat  at  his  table  with  his 
elbows  on  it  and  his  books  unopened. 
Then  he  suddenly  shook  himself  and 


MODERN  PAGANS         35 

said  out  loud:  "O  pshaw!  Get  down  to 
business !"  He  opened  up  his  books  and 
began  to  study.  It  was  after  one 
o'clock  when  he  went  to  bed. 

Next  morning  at  the  breakfast  table 
Mr.  Wallace  was  reading  the  news- 
paper account  of  the  meetings.  Among 
other  items  the  paper  said,  speaking  of 
Mr.  Spencer's  sermon,  "There  was  a 
crowd  out  to  hear  the  Reverend 
Spencer,  and  it  was  in  a  critical  atti- 
tude. The  sermon  itself  was  quite  free 
from  sensational  features,  quite  tame  in 
fact.  There  were  no  oratorical  flights, 
no  thrilling  passages.  A  very  ordinary 
effort,  although  he  held  his  audience 
well.  It  is  predicted  that  now  public 
curiosity  is  satisfied,  the  audiences  will 
dwindle  down.  Many  present  last  night 
expressed  themselves  as  disappointed  in 
the  evangelist.  They  had  expected 
something  more  sensational  and  attrac- 
tive. A  good  deal  of  criticism  is  heard 
on  the  street  to-day  over  the  amount  of 
money  required  by  the  church  com- 


36         MODERN  PAGANS 

mittee  to  carry  on  the  campaign.  The 
amount  asked  for  is  between  two  thou- 
sand dollars  and  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred dollars  a  week.  This  is  considered 
a  large  sum  for  a  town  the  size  of  West- 
ville  to  raise.  After  all  incidental  ex- 
penses are  paid  it  is  reckoned  by  the 
public  that  Mr.  Ambrose  Spencer  will 
carry  off  for  his  share  about  six  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  or  seven  hundred  dol- 
lars, a  good  tidy  sum  for  two  weeks' 
work,  especially  when  it  is  considered 
that  the  number  of  converts  he  is  likely 
to  make  will  be  small.  The  average  citi- 
zen cannot  understand  how  the  average 
evangelist  earns  his  money,  especially 
when  the  average  preacher  who  has  the 
care  of  a  church  and  a  parish  is  expected 
to  get  along  on  as  much  in  six  months  as 
most  evangelists  receive  in  six  weeks. 

"Mr.  Spencer  will  preach  to-night  on 
'The  New  Birth,'  and  the  meeting  will 
begin  promptly  at  seven  thirty." 

"There!  That's  what  I  say,"  Mr. 
Wallace  commented.  "It's  an  extrava- 


MODERN  PAGANS         37 

gant  lot.  What  preacher  in  Westville 
gets  anything  like  three  hundred  dollars 
a  week?  And  this  man  is  an  ordinary 
preacher  sponging  on  the  community 
and  lazing  around  the  country,  having 
all  his  expenses  paid,  putting  up  at  the 
best  hotels,  and  having  a  good  time  gen- 
erally. Great  fake,  I  call  it." 

"I  say,  father,  I  don't  just  think  the 
paper  hit  it  off  right  on  the  preaching," 
said  Harry,  who  with  all  his  faults  had 
a  very  large  sense  of  fair  play  in  his 
make-up.  "I  thought  his  sermon  was 
fine — far  above  the  average.  I  tell 
you  there  aren't  many  preachers  can 
preach  so  that  people  will  stand  up 
for  half  or  three  quarters  of  an  hour 
to  listen,  and  that's  what  they  did  last 
night.  The  News  is  'way  off  in  its  ac- 
count. Spencer  is  an  unusual  preacher, 
I  think." 

"Why!  How's  that,  young  man?" 
Mr.  Wallace  turned  a  little  red  and 
looked  at  his  son  hard.  "What  do  you 
know  about  it?" 


38         MODERN  PAGANS 

"Well,  I  was  there,  for  one  thing," 
Harry  replied,  coloring  a  little,  but 
speaking  in  a  straightforward  way. 
All  the  family  stared  at  him.  Mrs. 
Wallace,  looked  confused. 

"How  was  the  singing?  Of  a  cheap 
order,  wasn't  it?"  asked  Agnes,  who 
was  extremely  sensitive  on  the  question 
of  music  in  church.  One  reason  she  had 
stopped  going  to  Sunday  school  was 
because  she  did  not  like  some  of  the 
hymns  in  the  Sunday  school  book. 

"O,  I  don't  know."  Harry  was  irri- 
tated suddenly.  "I'm  no  judge  of  such 
music.  Most  of  the  people  seemed  to 
enjoy  it.  But  I  say  the  News  doesn't 
give  a  fair  account  of  Spencer.  He's 
all  right." 

Mr.  Wallace  opened  his  lips  as  if  to 
speak,  but  shut  them  again  and  turned 
to  the  paper.  Harry  applied  himself 
to  his  breakfast  and  no  one  else  asked 
any  question  for  several  minutes.  After 
a  while  John  said,  "Spencer  is  a  college 
man,  isn't  he?" 


MODERN  PAGANS         39 

"Yes,  Amherst,  eighty-nine,  so  Fair- 
view  told  me." 

"Was  Fairview  at  the  meeting?"  Mrs. 
Wallace  asked. 

"Yes.    We  went  together." 

"Any  other  students  there?"  asked 
Mr.  Wallace,  curiously. 

"Yes,  sir.    I  saw  quite  a  number." 

"What  do  they  say  about  Spencer?" 

"I  don't  know.  I  haven't  talked  with 
them." 

"What  does  Fairview  think?"  Agnes 
asked.  Fairview  was  one  of  Agnes's 
heroes  out  of  the  very  few  she  carried  on 
her  list. 

"Fairview  thinks  Spencer  is  all 
right,"  replied  Harry,  with  vigor.  "He 
says  Spencer  has  a  healthy  mind.  But 
if  you're  all  so  curious  about  him,  why 
don't  you  go  yourselves  and  hear  him?" 

Harry  looked  at  his  father  as  he 
sometimes  did  in  his  open-hearted,  frank 
manner.  His  father  laughed  shortly  as 
he  rose  to  go  down  to  the  store. 

"Catch  me.    I've  no  desire  to  add  to 


40         MODERN  PAGANS 

the  audience  of  dupes  who  are  hypno- 
tized by  an  impostor." 

As  his  father  went  out  of  the  room 
Harry  said,  speaking  to  his  mother: 
"I  don't  think  father  is  fair  to  Mr. 
Spencer.  He's  not  an  impostor.  And 
I'm  sure  he  does  not  hypnotize  people. 
It  struck  me  he  was  a  very  pleasant- 
spoken,  straightforward  Christian.  I 
wish  father  wouldn't  talk  as  he  does." 

"Your  father  has  been  deceived  on 
several  occasions  by  church  members  in 
business  transactions,"  Mrs.  Wallace 
said,  timidly.  "I  think  that  accounts 
for  his  prejudice  in  the  case  of  evangel- 
ists." 

"He  has  no  right  to  judge  Spencer  on 
that  account,"  replied  Harry,  shortly. 
"It's  not  fair."  He  got  up  from  the 
table,  gathered  up  his  books,  and  went 
out  without  any  more  words.  Mrs. 
Wallace,  Agnes,  and  John  seemed  more 
than  usually  surprised  at  Harry's 
manner,  although  it  was  the  regular  rule 
in  the  Wallace  household  for  each  mem- 


MODERN  PAGANS         41 

her  to  express  himself  with  the  greatest 
possible  freedom. 

"Doesn't  it  seem  queer  for  Harry  to 
go  to  the  meeting?"  Mrs.  Wallace  said. 

"Not  if  Fairview  asked  him,"  said 
Agnes.  "He  would  do  anything  Fair- 
view  asked  him." 

"He  seemed  to  like  Spencer  pretty 
well,"  said  John.  "That  isn't  like 
Harry — to  take  to  strangers  at  first 
sfght." 

"It  seems  queer  to  me,"  Mrs.  Wallace 
murmured. 

Nothing  more  was  said  about  the 
meeting  until  after  supper.  The  family 
had  finished  the  meal.  Mr.  Wallace  was 
at  his  newspaper  again.  Agnes  had 
gone  upstairs.  John  was  putting  on  his 
overcoat  in  the  hall  preparatory  to  go- 
ing out  to  see  a  classmate.  Mr.  Wallace 
was  sitting  in  his  customary  place  by  the 
library  table.  Harry  with  a  pile  of 
books  under  his  arm  had  started  up- 
stairs. His  mother  spoke  suddenly,  half 
rising  from  the  chair. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PAGAN  AND  THE 
MEETINGS 

The  most  powerful  of  all  things  is  not  measurable 
by  anything. 

"I  WAS  thinking  some  about  going  to 
the  meeting  to-night.  You  don't  mind, 
do  you,  Ralph?" 

"No,  of  course  not,"  replied  Mr. 
Wallace.  "Go  if  you  want  to.  Will 
Agnes  go  with  you?" 

"Agnes  has  an  engagement  with  her 
society  this  evening.  She  says  she  can 
go  to-morrow.  I  can  go  with  Mrs. 
Thomas.  I  heard  her  say  this  morning 
she  was  going." 

Mrs.  Thomas  was  the  Wallace's  next- 
door  neighbor. 

"O,  well,  that's  all  right."  Mr.  Wal- 
lace resumed  his  paper  and  his  cigar. 
Harry  still  remained  with  one  foot  on 
the  stair,  his  books  under  his  arm.  John 
had  opened  the  front  door  and  gone  out. 

42 


MODERN  PAGANS         43 

Harry  started  upstairs.  Half  way  up 
he  paused,  then  turned  and  came  back 
again. 

"I'll  go  with  you,  mother,"  he  said, 
slowly.  Mr.  Wallace  looked  up  from 
his  paper.  Mrs.  Wallace  looked  aston- 
ished. 

"You  can't  spare  the  time  from  your 
studies." 

"Yes,  I  can.  Just  let  me  fling  these 
books  into  my  room." 

He  ran  upstairs,  threw  his  books 
down  on  the  table,  and  was  downstairs 
again.  Mr.  Wallace  was  hard  at  his 
paper  and  cigar  again.  As  Mrs.  Wal- 
lace and  Harry  went  out  he  looked  up 
again. 

"I  suppose  it  will  be  ten  o'clock  be- 
fore you  will  get  back.  These  evangel- 
ists are  long-winded  animals." 

"I  don't  think  it  will  be  as  late  as 
that,"  Harry  said  as  he  and  his  mother 
went  out. 

On  the  way  to  the  meeting  scarcely  a 
word  was  exchanged  between  Mrs. 


44         MODERN  PAGANS 

Wallace  and  her  son.  The  event  of  his 
accompanying  her  was  so  unusual  that 
it  acted  almost  as  an  embarrassment  be- 
tween them. 

The  service  began  as  usual  with  sing- 
ing. Mrs.  Wallace,  who  had  something 
of  Agnes'  sensitive  feeling  for  what  she 
called  cheap  church  music,  sat  listening 
at  first  with  a  feeling  of  critical  discom- 
fort. But  the  solo  singer  was  a  man  of 
much  refinement  and  unquestioned  con- 
secration. Mrs.  Wallace  confessed  the 
next  morning  that  his  voice  compared 
favorably  with  many  she  had  heard  in 
opera.  And,  in  fact,  Mark  Burleigh 
had  begun  his  career  as  a  professional 
opera  singer  until  he  was  converted  at 
a  street  meeting  in  Hyde  Park,  and 
Ambrose  Spencer  had  prevailed  on  him 
to  come  with  him.  They  had  been  to- 
gether five  years  and  were  like  brothers 
in  their  feeling  toward  each  other. 

During  the  sermon  Mrs.  Wallace  sev- 
eral times  glanced  at  Harry.  He  was 
listening  carefully,  but  his  face  did  not 


MODERN  PAGANS         45 

tell  anything  in  particular  of  his  impres- 
sions. When  Spencer  finished  and  an- 
nounced that  decision  cards  would  be 
distributed,  Harry  straightened  up  and 
his  face  assumed  its  usual  expression  of 
good-natured  indifference.  He  took 
one  of  the  cards  from  the  usher  and  read 
it,  but  almost  instantly  put  it  in  his 
pocket  without  signing  it.  When  the 
meeting  was  finally  dismissed  he  went 
out  with  his  mother  and  their  walk  home 
was  almost  as  silent  as  it  had  been  on 
their  way  to  the  meeting. 

Only  once  Mrs.  Wallace  said,  "Mr. 
Spencer  is  a  very  good  and  pleasant 
speaker.  His  sermon  had  some  beauti- 
ful illustrations  in  it,  didn't  you  think?" 

"Yes,  I  thought  they  were  unusually 
good,"  said  Harry. 

"The  News  was  certainly  wrong  in  its 
prediction  about  a  falling  off  in  attend- 
ance," Mrs.  Wallace  murmured. 

"Yes,  a  bigger  crowd  than  last  night. 
There  must  have  been  twice  as  many 
standing." 


46         MODERX  PAGANS 

Mr.  Wallace  was  sitting  up  as  they 
came  home.  It  was  a  quarter  of  ten. 
Harry  went  right  up  to  his  room  with 
only  a  brief  good  night.  Mr.  Wallace 
asked  only  one  or  two  questions,  and 
next  morning  at  breakfast  little  was  said 
about  the  meetings.  Agnes  asked  her 
mother  if  she  wanted  her  to  go  with  her 
to  the  night  sendee,  and  Mrs.  Wallace 
replied  that  she  would  be  glad  to  have 
her,  and  spoke  a  word  of  praise  of  Mr. 
Burleigh's  solo  work.  Harry  said  little 
and  left  the  breakfast  table  early. 

Mr.  Wallace,  on  his  way  downtown, 
was  saying  to  himself:  "Queer  thing 
Harry  should  take  to  going  to  these 
meetings.  I  suspect  last  night  is  about 
all  he  will  want." 

On  going  over  his  morning  mail  he 
came  upon  the  following  letter,  which 
came  as  near  disturbing  his  peace  of 
mind  as  he  ever  allowed  it  to  be  moved. 
The  letter  was  from  an  old  college  class- 
mate in  Washington  and  he  read  it 
through  twice.  Andrews  was  a  business 


MODERN  PAGANS         47 

man  whom  he  admired  greatly  on  ac- 
count of  his  great  ability  and  his  success. 
He  had  accumulated  a  fortune  since 
going  to  the  Northwest,  and  Wallace 
had  heard  of  him  only  occasionally. 

"My  dear  Wallace,"  the  letter  began. 
"I  understand  Ambrose  Spencer  is  to 
begin  or  has  already  begun  a  series  of 
revival  meetings  in  Westville.  At  the 
very  beginning  I  want  to  commend  him 
to  you  and  your  family  as  a  splendid 
consecrated  Christian  gentleman.  You 
know  perhaps  that  when  I  came  out 
here  I  had  little  or  no  use  for  churches  or 
religion,  and  my  main  purpose  was  to 
make  money.  This  whole  Northwest  is 
a  wonderful  place,  and  before  I  knew  it 
I  was  up  to  my  neck  in  money-making. 
It  seemed  as  if  the  money  just  poured 
in  on  me  and  I  couldn't  prevent  it. 
Well,  all  that  time  I  let  the  church  and 
the  Bible  and  prayer  and  religion  gener- 
ally simply  drift  out  of  my  life.  My 
wife  and  children  (we  have  three  boys 
and  one  girl)  were  just  like  me,  and  we 


48         MODERN  PAGANS 

were  living  as  near  like  pagans  as  any 
family  in  a  nominally  Christian  country 
can  live.  I  gave  a  little  money  once  in  a 
while  to  good  causes,  but  spent  ten  times 
as  much  on  foolishness  and  luxuries. 
About  a  month  ago  Spencer  came  to 
Seattle  and  began  his  meetings.  I  had 
no  use  for  them  and  didn't  go  near  them 
until  an  old  friend  urged  me  to  attend. 
I  went  just  to  please  him,  got  inter- 
ested, and  to  make  this  letter  shorter,  I 
at  last  got  soundly  converted,  and  I 
found  my  whole  life  changed.  Next  my 
wife  became  interested,  and  our  chil- 
dren, and  it  seems  like  a  miracle  to  me 
that  we  have  all  become  Christians,  and 
last  Sunday  we  all  united  with  the 
church.  It  was  the  happiest  day  of  my 
life.  I  find  the  joy  of  it  doesn't  wear 
off.  Of  course  I  naturally  feel  very 
grateful  to  Mr.  Spencer,  and  I  felt  an 
impulse  to-day  to  write  you  this  much 
and  express  a  hope  that  you  might  meet 
him  and  get  help  from  his  gospel  mes- 
sage. It  has  meant  more  than  words 


MODERN  PAGANS         49 

can  tell  to  me,  this  new  life.  People 
may  say  what  they  please  about  being 
hypnotized  and  all  that,  as  some  of  my 
business  friends  do,  but  I  know  well 
enough  it  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  who  has  opened  my  eyes,  through 
Ambrose  Spencer  as  the  human  mes- 
senger, to  see  Christ  in  my  daily  life.  I 
was  a  critical,  fault-finding,  narrow- 
minded,  selfish  man,  living  for  my  own 
ease  and  pleasure.  I  am  now — I  say  it 
with  praise  to  God — at  least  a  man  with 
a  far  different  definition  of  life  and  an 
honest  desire  to  build  up  the  kingdom  of 
God  on  the  earth.  And  I  trust  I  see  the 
difference  between  that  kind  of  a  life 
and  my  old  life  better  than  anyone  else. 
"There  is  one  matter  I  would  like  to 
mention  to  you,  as  it  may  possibly  influ- 
ence your  thought  of  Mr.  Spencer.  A 
great  deal  of  newspaper  criticism  has 
been  made  about  the  compensation  he 
receives  for  his  service  as  an  evangelist. 
I  happen  to  know  that  a  great  deal  of 
this  criticism  is  based  on  the  lack  of 


50         MODERN  PAGANS 

knowledge  concerning  Spencer's  income 
and  his  use  of  the  voluntary  offerings. 
In  the  first  place,  Spencer  five  years  ago 
left  a  church  in  the  East  where  he  was 
getting  a  salary  of  $6,000  a  year.  From 
a  close  personal  friend  of  Spencer's  I 
find  that  during  the  five  years  he  has 
been  in  evangelistic  work  he  has  not  re- 
ceived in  any  one  year  half  of  the 
amount  he  once  had  while  pastor  of  the 
Eastern  church.  In  the  second  place,  he 
is  able  to  work  only  eight  months  in  the 
year  on  account  of  the  tremendous  nerv- 
ous strain.  In  the  third  place,  he  has  by 
choosing  this  life  of  an  evangelist  cut 
himself  off  for  eight  months  at  a  time 
from  his  home  and  his  family,  a  great 
privation  in  itself  and  a  greater  sacrifice 
than  even  the  foreign  missionaries  make 
in  many  ways.  In  the  fourth  place,  I 
found  out  that  he  has  dependent  on  him 
an  unusually  large  number  of  poor  rela- 
tives and  old  people,  for  whom  he  has 
made  himself  responsible,  so  that  he  is 
not  able,  even  if  he  wished,  to  make  any 


MODERN  PAGANS         51 

money,  to  say  nothing  of  laying  up  a 
little  insurance  for  sickness  and  old  age. 
Under  these  conditions  it  seems  like  a 
cruel  thing  to  make  the  charges  they  do 
and  prejudice  the  public  against  one  of 
the  most  unselfish,  conscientious,  noble 
Christian  gentlemen  that  ever  lived.  I 
know,  of  course,  that  you  could  never  be 
guilty  personally  of  such  criticism,  but 
simply  wished  to  let  you  know  these 
facts  so  that  the  newspaper  criticisms 
might  not  have  any  effect  on  your  mind. 
You  will,  I  am  sure,  pardon  the  expres- 
sion of  the  desire  on  my  part,  Wallace, 
that  you  may  some  time  know  the  joy 
yourself  that  I  feel  as  I  write  this  letter. 
There  is  nothing  like  the  Christian  life 
to  give  you  peace  and  happiness.  And 
I  can  wish  you  nothing  better  than  the 
same  experience  that  has  come  to  me. 
My  regards  to  Mrs.  Wallace  and  the 
family. 

"Very  cordially,  your  old  classmate 
and  friend, 

"ALBERT  ANDREWS/" 


52         MODERN  PAGANS 

Parts  of  this  letter  made  Mr.  Ralph 
Wallace  angry.  When  a  self-satisfied 
gentleman  like  Mr.  Wallace,  who  is 
fixed  in  his  opinions,  receives  an  intima- 
tion, even  innocently  made,  that  he  is 
mistaken  as  to  certain  deep-seated  prej- 
udices, the  first  feeling  he  has  is  a 
feeling  of  angry  irritation.  Such  a 
man  does  not  like  to  be  corrected  or 
enlightened.  Nothing  is  so  irritating 
to  your  positive,  dead-sure  man  as  any 
statement  in  the  way  of  proof  that  he 
may  be  mistaken.  He  was  angry  that 
Andrews  had  written  him  at  all.  And 
as  he  threw  the  letter  into  the  waste 
paper  basket  he  muttered:  "Andrews 
might  'tend  to  his  own  business.  I'm  not 
interested  in  all  his  gossip  about  this 
evangelist."  Nevertheless  the  letter  an- 
noyed him  all  day  and  when  he  reached 
home  that  night  he  was  in  a  glum  humor 
which  showed  itself  in  a  moody,  dis- 
agreeable manner  to  every  member  of 
the  family.  The  usual  attitude  of  the 
Wallace  household  on  such  occasions 


MODERN  PAGANS         53 

was  a  profound  ignoring  of  the  whole 
thing  until  it  wore  off. 

Immediately  after  supper  Mrs.  Wal- 
lace asked  Agnes  if  she  was  ready  to  go 
to  the  meeting. 

"Yes,  mother,  I'll  go.  I  don't  care 
much  about  hearing  Mr.  Spencer,  but 
I  would  like  to  hear  Mr.  Burleigh. 
Some  of  the  girls  think  he  has  a  beauti- 
ful voice." 

Just  then  the  bell  rang,  and  Harry, 
who  happened  to  be  out  in  the  hallway, 
opened  the  door.  "O,  come  in,  Fair- 
view,"  Mrs.  Wallace  and  Agnes  heard 
him  say.  Fairview  came  in,  and  as  he 
closed  the  door  said,  "Don't  you  want  to 
come  down  to  the  meeting  with  me  to- 
night? I  couldn't  get  away  from  a 
business  meeting  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  last 
night.  I  suppose  you  didn't  go,  so  I 
thought  maybe  you  could  take  the  time 
to-night." 

"No,  I  went  with  mother  last  night," 
Harry  replied  in  some  embarrassment. 
"She  and  Agnes  are  going  to-night,  and 


54         MODERN  PAGANS 

I  was  planning  to  put  in  the  evening  on 
my  Antigone." 

"I'll  help  you  with  it  when  we  get 
home,"  Fairview  said,  pleasantly. 

"Well,  I  don't  know,  I  guess  maybe 
I'll  go  then,"  Harry  said  after  a  pause. 

Mrs.  Wallace  and  Agnes  came  out 
into  the  hall  and  greeted  Fairview.  "Is 
it  about  time  to  go?"  Mrs.  Wallace 
asked. 

"Yes,  there  is  every  prospect  of  an 
overflow  to-night.  I  think  we  had 
better  go  early  in  order  to  get  seats." 

As  they  were  going  out  Mrs.  Wallace 
said,  timidly.  "Good-by,  Ralph."  Mr. 
Wallace  made  no  answer.  The  tobacco 
smoke  rolled  over  the  top  of  his  news- 
paper and  he  did  not  even  lower  it  to 
look  at  his  wife  as  she  slowly  closed  the 
door. 

Once  outside,  Harry  took  his  mother  s 
arm,  leaving  Fairview  to  go  with  Agnes. 
The  arrangement  had  not  been  pre- 
meditated, and  Fairview  was  the  last 
man  in  college  to  imagine  that  a  girl  like 


MODERN  PAGANS         55 

Agnes  Wallace  cared  one  way  or  the 
other  for  him.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
Agnes  was  delighted  with  every  oppor- 
tunity she  had,  which  was  not  often,  to 
talk  with  Fairview.  He  was  not  a  good 
talker  either,  and  as  the  distance  to  the 
place  of  the  meeting  was  not  far,  very 
little  was  said  on  the  way. 

"Does  Mr.  Burleigh  sing  to-night?" 
she  asked. 

"Yes,  he  sings  every  night." 

"Do  you  like  him?" 

"Yes.  He  has  a  splendid  voice. 
But  I  think  I  like  Mr.  Spencer  even 
better." 

"I  don't  think  I  care  much  about  Mr. 
Spencer.  He  is  doing  it  for  pay.  He's 
in  the  preaching  business  for  pay." 

Agnes  was  simply  repeating  her 
father's  talk  in  her  own  sharply  critical 
manner. 

"Where  did  you  get  that  idea?"  Fair- 
view  asked,  slowly. 

"O,  it's  been  in  the  papers.  Haven't 
you  seen  it?" 


56         MODERN  PAGANS 

"Yes,  but  I  don't  believe  all  I  read  in 
the  papers,  especially  when  I  know  it 
isn't  true." 

"Do  you  know  it  isn't  true?" 

"Yes,  I  do.  Mr.  Spencer  is  an  old 
college  classmate  of  my  father.  He 
knows  him  very  intimately.  There 
never  was  a  more  unselfish  Christian 
gentleman  in  America,  father  says. 
Any  paper  that  speaks  of  Spencer  as  a 
religious  crank  or  grafter  is  saying  an 
untruth."  Fairview  spoke  as  near 
anger  as  he  ever  came.  Agnes  liked  it 
in  him. 

"I  shall  listen  to  him  with  more  in- 
terest," she  said,  frankly,  "although 
I  am  prejudiced,  and  might  as  well 
say  so." 

"He  can  take  care  of  himself,  I  am 
sure,"  Fairview  said,  gently.  And  that 
was  about  all  the  conversation  that 
passed  between  them  before  the  hall  was 
reached. 

There  was  a  great  crowd.  Floor  and 
galleries  were  packed.  Several  hundred 


MODERN  PAGANS         57 

people  were  unable  to  get  in.  At  the 
close  of  the  service  nearly  a  hundred 
people  rose  and  said  they  wanted  to  be- 
gin a  Christian  life.  The  decision  cards 
were  passed,  and,  as  before,  Harry  took 
one,  looked  at  it  and  put  it  unsigned  into 
his  pocket.  Fairview  glanced  several 
times  during  the  service  at  Mrs.  Wal- 
lace and  Agnes.  Once  he  saw  a  tear  on 
Mrs.  Wallace's  cheek.  Agnes's  face 
several  times  expressed  deep  interest. 
Spencer  had  never  preached  with  more 
impressive  appeal.  He  had  spoken  on 
the  joy  of  the  Christian  faith  and  had 
described  the  empty  fruitless  results  of 
a  negative  morality.  Over  against  that 
he  had  shown  how  like  a  star  in  the  night 
shone  the  soul  that  had  Christ  at  the 
center.  Then  his  closing  appeal  had 
been  wonderfully  tender  and  strong  in 
its  plain  love  for  the  multitude. 

"The  idea  of  calling  him  a  crank  or 
a  fake!"  Fairview  heard  Wallace 
mutter.  Agnes  on  the  way  home  had 
the  frankness  to  say  to  Fairview:  "I'll 


58         MODERN  PAGANS 

take  back  all  I  said  about  Mr.  Spencer. 
He  is  splendid.  I  had  no  idea  he  was  so 
fine." 

"I'm  glad,"  Fairview  had  said,  and 
that  was  about  all.  Only  it  was  notice- 
able almost  nothing  was  said  about  Bur- 
leigh  that  night,  and  even  Agnes  forgot 
to  mention  her  feelings,  which  at  the 
opening  of  the  service  had  been  hurt  by 
one  or  two  crude  gospel  hymns. 

Mr.  Wallace  had  gone  to  bed.  The 
next  morning  at  the  breakfast  table  he 
began  to  ask  questions  about  the  meet- 
ing and  seemed  unusually  annoyed  at 
the  enthusiasm  displayed  by  Mrs.  Wal- 
lace, Agnes,  and  Harry,  although  the 
boy  was  less  talkative  than  mother  and 
sister. 

"You  ought  to  go  yourself,  father," 
Agnes  said,  boldly.  "You  would 
change  your  mind  about  him  if  you  once 
heard  him." 

"Think  so?"  Mr.  Wallace  replied, 
grimly.  "I  guess  not.  I  don't  often 
change  my  mind." 


MODERN  PAGANS         59 

"I  wish  you  would  go,"  Mrs.  Wallace 
said  in  her  timid  fashion. 

"Well,  if  I  go  it  will  be  to  please 
you,"  Mr.  Wallace  said,  with  unex- 
pected good-nature,  to  the  surprise  of 
all  the  family  as  he  rose  to  go  out. 

"Father  will  never  go  to  the  meet- 
ings," Agnes  said,  with  incredulity. 

"Perhaps  he  will."  Mrs.  Wallace 
spoke  with  a  real  longing,  longing  that 
had  been  a  stranger  to  her  for  years. 
So  much  already  had  that  one  service 
done  for  her. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  POWER  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

"Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit." 

AND  then,  three  nights  after  that, 
Harry  Wallace  faced  his  battle  ground 
of  decision.  He  had  been  to  every  meet- 
ing so  far.  Drawn  by  the  sweet  com- 
pulsion of  the  Divine  Spirit,  this  young- 
athlete,  up  to  this  time  three  fourths 
animal,  came  up  to  the  place  where  his 
soul  had  to  have  a  chance  at  itself.  He 
realized  that  it  was  not  play  time  at  all, 
but  grim,  earnest,  serious,  everlasting 
reality  that  he  had  to  grapple  with.  He 
held  one  of  the  decision  cards  in  his 
hand.  He  had  already  put  five  in  his 
pocket,  one  for  each  night  he  had  at- 
tended the  meetings.  Mr.  Spencer  had 
preached  this  night  on  "Personal  Deci- 
sion." "What  wilt  thou  do  with  the 
Christ?"  Harry  understood  what  it  all 
meant.  He  was  not  bewildered  or  con- 

60 


MODERN  PAGANS         61 

fused  in  the  least.  Light  in  plenty  had 
come  to  him.  His  hesitation  was  on 
account  of  the  clearness  and  greatness 
of  the  light.  Could  he  live  up  to  it? 
Was  he  equal  to  this  great  Life?  He 
read  the  words  at  the  top  of  the  little 
card:  "I  decide  that  henceforth  I  will 
lead  a  Christian  Life."  Then  he  read 
underneath  the  words,  "For  the  Lord 
God  will  help  me."  He  waited  a  little 
longer.  The  usher  had  given  him  a  lead 
pencil.  He  had  taken  it  mechanically. 
The  evangelist  was  talking.  He  kept 
listening  to  him,  and  every  word  he  said 
was  distinct  and  clear.  "Don't  make 
your  decision  about  the  new  life  without 
clearly  realizing  what  it  means.  It 
means  for  some  of  you  restitution  of  ill 
gotten  money  in  business,  for  others  it 
means  practicing  the  brotherhood  after 
all  your  lives  so  far  lived  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  caste  and  pride;  for  some  of 
you  it  will  mean  forgiving  old  enemies 
or  loving  them  when  you  have  hated 
them  for  years ;  for  others  here  this  deci- 


62         MODERN  PAGANS 

sion  will  mean  changing  the  old  habits 
of  ill  temper,  or  perverseness,  or  fault- 
finding, or  ingratitude,  or  impurity,  or 
pride,  into  the  habits  which  are  the  exact 
opposite.  In  other  words,  if  you  make 
a  real,  true  decision  to  lead  an  honest 
Christian  life,  it  will  mean  the  complete 
overturning  of  all  the  old  selfish  habits 
of  a  lifetime,  Christ  on  the  throne,  the 
kingdom  of  God  the  first  passion  of  the 
soul,  and  righteousness  the  great  hun- 
ger of  the  whole  being.  This  is  not  a 
decision,  therefore,  to  make  lightly  or  as 
if  it  meant  little.  It  is  the  greatest  step 
you  will  ever  take.  But  if  God's  grace 
is  sufficient  for  you,  as  it  always  is,  take 
the  step,  make  the  decision,  with  joy. 
Don't  be  afraid,  for  the  Lord  God  will 
help  you!" 

Harry  heard  all  this  distinctly.  He 
remembered  afterward  that  he  signed 
his  name  while  the  people  were  singing 
the  Glory  song,  one  of  the  hymns  that 
Agnes  had  severely  criticized  the  even- 
ing before.  When  he  went  home  he  was 


MODERN  PAGANS         63 

conscious  of  a  certain  well-defined  feel- 
ing of  peace.  He  had  had  a  talk  with 
Mr.  Spencer  and  it  had  helped  him 
greatly.  For  twenty-one  years — all  his 
life — he  had  known  only  what  is  called 
nominal  Christianity.  He  had  been 
born  into  a  civilization  saturated  with 
Christian  ideas,  but  had  personally  re- 
ceived only  as  much  as  outward  sur- 
roundings can  give.  Now  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  moving  on  his  spirit  had 
touched  him  in  his  own  real  life,  he  was 
literally  a  new  creature.  Old  things 
have  passed  away ;  behold,  all  things  are 
become  new.  The  miracle  of  regenera- 
tion had  come  to  him  as  it  has  come  to 
thousands  of  other  souls,  and  his  stal- 
wart nature  responded  to  it  with  enthu- 
siasm. Truly  Fairview  was  right  when 
he  had  said  to  him,  "God  could  do  great 
things  with  you  if  you  would  let  him." 

In  the  morning  he  faced  the  family  at 
the  breakfast  table  with  a  strong  feel- 
ing of  embarrassment.  It  was  not  fear 
or  cowardice  or  shame,  but  a  knowledge 


64         MODERN  PAGANS 

that  he  had  begun  to  live  in  a  different 
world  from  that  of  his  father,  his  sister, 
and  his  brother.  His  mother  could 
understand  in  part  at  least,  and  after 
breakfast  before  he  went  out  to  his  col- 
lege work  he  told  her  what  he  had  done. 
The  quick  response  she  made,  the  sight 
of  the  joyful  tear  in  her  eyes  affected 
him  profoundly.  He  had  time  for  only 
a  brief  talk  with  her,  but  it  meant  very 
much  to  him.  In  the  family  circle  it 
meant  that  one  member  of  it  at  least 
understood  and  sympathized  with  him. 

How  little  we  know  or  anticipate  of 
the  strange  and  unexpected  events  in 
our  lives!  That  afternoon  while  going 
through  his  regular  practice  on  the 
campus,  Harry,  who  had  never  before 
been  hurt  at  any  of  the  athletic  games, 
during  the  very  last  minute  of  the  scrub 
practice  fell  under  a  pile  of  players,  and 
when  all  the  others  rose  he  remained  on 
the  ground.  Fairview  was  kneeling  by 
him  in  an  instant. 

"What  is  it,  old  man?" 


MODERN  PAGANS         65 

"Collar  bone  I  think,"  Wallace  an- 
swered with  a  faint  smile  on  his  pale 
face. 

Fairview  slid  his  hand  gently  along 
the  shoulder  and  up  the  neck.  Then  he 
raised  his  head  and  said  to  the  group 
standing  around:  "Awful  sorry,  fellows. 
It's  the  collar  bone  all  right.  And  the 
big  game  only  ten  days  off." 

"He'll  hardly  make  it,  will  he?"  was 
the  anxious  query. 

"Well,  hardly,"  Fairview  replied, 
grimly.  "Old  man,  I'm  so  sorry." 

They  improvised  a  stretcher  and  car- 
ried him  home.  When  the  doctor  had 
come  and  set  the  bone,  Harry  made  him 
say  how  soon  he  could  play  again.  "No 
more  this  season,  young  fellow,"  said  the 
doctor. 

"Can't  you  patch  me  up  for  the  big 
game,  Doctor?" 

"Yes,  and  the  patches  would  come 
undone  after  the  first  kick-off."  The 
doctor  was  inexorable.  He  assured 
Harry  that  his  trouble  was  more  serious 


66         MODERN  PAGANS 

than  he  imagined,  and  that  he  might  be 
thankful  if  he  got  out  on  the  campus  by 
next  spring  in  time  for  the  baseball  sea- 
son, and  left  him  with  the  comforting 
assurance  that  it  might  have  been  his 
neck  instead  of  his  collar  bone. 

But  the  whole  thing  was  a  strange 
and  in  the  end  a  true  test  of  his  new- 
found life.  For  ten  years  he  had  wor- 
shiped muscle,  wind,  endurance,  flesh. 
Here  he  was  suddenly  flung  down  off 
that  pedestal,  put  on  the  list  of  shut-ins, 
reduced  to  practice  invalidism,  all  his 
accustomed  scorn  of  weakness  flung 
back  at  him,  the  crack  center  of  the 
team,  the  hero  of  the  class,  the  unscathed 
one  who  had  so  often  boasted  that  it  was 
only  the  weakling  who  got  hurt  in  a 
scrimmage.  Put  on  the  sick  list  by  the 
scrub  team  of  his  own  college  in  a  light 
practice  game!  For  the  first  few  min- 
utes of  reflection  after  the  doctor  had 
gone  out,  hot  rebellion  surged  up  in  him 
and  he  could  not  reconcile  himself  to  it. 
Then  there  followed  almost  immediately 


MODERN  PAGANS         67 

a  feeling  of  submission  that  was  a  new 
experience.  His  mother  discovered  him 
crying  a  little.  He  had  not  done  that 
since  he  was  a  very  little  boy.  Her 
accustomed  mild  affection  leaped  on  the 
instant  over  all  barriers  and  she  fell  on 
her  knees  by  his  bedside,  and  called  him 
by  long-forgotten  pet  names  of  baby- 
hood. To  her  surprise,  he  soon  began 
to  laugh  in  a  natural  way  and  assured 
her  that  he  had  really  much  to  be  thank- 
ful for. 

"I'll  be  a  good  invalid,  mother,"  he 
said.  "Now  that  I'm  here,  I'll  not  let 
my  back  hair  down  and  wail  over  it. 
Don't  pity  me.  I've  got  great  blessings 
and  I  appreciate  them." 

And,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  the 
family,  to  no  one  more  than  to  his  father, 
Harry  as  the  days  went  on  proved  him- 
self capable  of  great  self-control  and 
large-heartedness.  The  new  life  was  so 
marked  a  thing  that  it  could  not  be  con- 
cealed or  mistaken  for  anything  else. 
The  second  day  of  his  illness  the  pastor 


68         MODERN  PAGANS 

of  the  Presbyterian  church  called  to  see 
him.  It  was  in  the  evening  and  Mr. 
Wallace,  Agnes,  and  John  happened 
all  to  be  in  the  room.  During  the  min- 
ister's brief  stay  Harry  frankly  told  him 
of  his  signing  the  decision  card  and  ex- 
pressed his  desire  to  join  the  church  as 
soon  as  he  was  able  to  get  to  church. 
The  minister  received  the  news  with  evi- 
dent emotion  and  in  a  few  well-chosen 
words  let  Harry  know  how  much  he  was 
pleased  with  his  decision.  He  had  risen 
to  go  when  Harry  said  in  a  natural, 
frank  way,  "Dr.  Barton  would  you  offer 
a  prayer  before  you  go?"  Dr.  Barton 
knelt  and  offered  a  prayer  in  his  simple, 
helpful  way,  rose,  said  good-by  to 
Harry  and  the  rest,  and  at  once  went 
out.  The  moment  he  had  gone  out  of 
the  room  Mr.  Wallace,  who  had  been 
standing  by  the  table  during  this  epi- 
sode, turned  his  back  on  his  children  and 
walked  out  without  a  word.  Agnes  and 
John  seemed  embarrassed  by  the  inci- 
dent, but  made  no  comment.  Harry 


MODERN  PAGANS         69 

seemed  to  take  it  all  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  was  unusually  cheerful  and 
happy  all  the  evening. 

The  next  afternoon  Ambrose  Spen- 
cer called  for  a  few  minutes.  Mrs. 
Wallace  and  Harry  were  both  helped 
by  his  cheery,  sensible  presence.  In  the 
evening  Mrs.  Wallace  mentioned  his 
visit  while  the  family  were  at  supper. 
Mr.  Wallace  made  no  comment  at  the 
time.  After  supper  he  said  as  he  picked 
up  the  paper  and  lighted  his  cigar,  "I 
suppose  Spencer  will  expect  us  to  bring 
Harry  to  the  meetings  in  a  hack.  It 
wouldn't  do  for  him  to  miss  any  of  the 
meetings,  would  it?" 

No  one  said  anything  to  this  outburst, 
and  after  a  while  Mr.  Wallace  looked 
up  and  spoke  directly  to  his  wife. 

"Are  you  going  out  to-night,  Lucy?" 

"No,  I  expect  to  stay  with  Harry." 

"You  going,  Agnes?" 

"No,  sir,  I'm  not  planning  to  go." 

"Are  you?"  he  continued,  turning  to 
John. 


70         MODERN  PAGANS 

John  colored  up  and  replied,  shortly, 
"No,  sir,  I  have  not  been  and  don't  ex- 
pect to  go." 

"Well,  I'm  glad  if  we  can  have  the 
family  together  one  night  in  the  week. 
It's  a  rare  occasion,"  Mr.  Wallace 
grumbled  as  he  turned  to  his  paper 
again. 

"I  suppose,  then,  father,"  said  Agnes, 
in  her  usual  sharp  incisive  manner, 
"that  you  will  make  yourself  entertain- 
ing and  agreeable  to  us  as  usual?" 
Mr.  Wallace  answered  by  an  inarticu- 
late grunt.  His  customary  habit  in 
the  evening  was  to  read  and  smoke, 
paying  little  attention  to  anyone 
else. 

Two  nights  after  that  Mrs.  Wallace 
timidly  said  as  the  family  rose  from  the 
supper  table:  "Harry  insists  that  he 
does  not  need  any  watching  any  longer 
and  wants  me  to  go  out  to  the  meeting 
to-night.  So  if  you  don't  mind,  Ralph, 
I'll  go.  I  think  Mrs.  Thomas  can  go 
with  me.  Agnes  says  she  would  rather 


MODERN  PAGANS         71 

stay  with  Harry.  The  meetings  close 
next  week." 

Mr.  Wallace  looked  up  from  his 
paper.  Something  about  the  wistful 
look  on  his  wife's  face  seemed  to  impress 
him  strangely.  He  hesitated  a  moment. 
What  was  passing  in  his  mind  he  told 
her  some  time  afterward  in  one  of  those 
moments  of  rare  confidence  of  which  her 
life  had  been  almost  empty.  He  said  it 
swept  over  him  in  a  self -accusing  wave 
a  mountain  high,  how  for  twenty-five 
years  he  had  selfishly  exercised  what  he 
called  his  rights  and  allowed  his  wife  to 
go  to  church  and  religious  gatherings 
unattended,  or  thrown  upon  the  cour- 
tesy of  neighbors.  He  got  up  and  threw 
his  cigar  into  the  grate  and  with  an 
embarrassed  manner  said,  "Well,  Lucy, 
what  would  you  say  if  I  offered  to  go 
with  you?" 

Mrs.  Wallace  gasped  in  astonish- 
ment. Agnes  stared  at  her  father  as  if 
he  were  csrazy.  John  uttered  a  low 
whistle  of  amazement. 


72         MODERN  PAGANS 

"Come  on,"  Mr.  Wallace  said, 
abruptly,  going  into  the  hall  and  getting 
his  overcoat.  "I  suppose  we  don't  need 
to  stay  to  any  after  meeting." 

Mrs.  Wallace  struggled  with  emo- 
tions that  were  new  to  her.  "I  shall  be 
so  happy  to  have  you  go,  Ralph,"  she 
said,  and  again  the  wistful  look  height- 
ened more  by  a  gleam  of  pleasure  smote 
Mr.  Wallace  anew.  When  they  had 
gone  out  there  was  a  moment  of 
deep  silence  in  the  sitting  room.  Then 
Agnes  rose  and  ran  upstairs  to  Harry's 
room. 

"Harry,  what  do  you  think?  Father 
has  gone  out  to  the  meeting  with 
mother !" 

"Thank  God,"  Harry  murmured  in 
such  a  low  tone  his  sister  scarcely  heard. 
She  did  see  the  tear  that  rolled  over  the 
cheek.  All  that  evening  Harry  Wal- 
lace lay  there  praying  incessantly  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  would  reach  his  father. 
Would  anyone  after  the  great  history 
of  prayer  is  recalled  dare  say  that  what 


MODERN  PAGANS         73 

came  to  pass  that  night  was  not  in  direct 
answer  to  that  son's  petition? 

The  meetings,  which  had  been  in  prog- 
ress now  for  two  weeks,  had  to  the  sen- 
sitive mind  of  the  evangelist  reached  a 
crisis.  The  spirit  of  criticism  was  gone, 
the  spirit  of  prayer  had  swept  it  out  of 
the  meeting  place.  For  two  nights  now 
he  had  been  obliged  to  ask  the  Chris- 
tian people  to  go  to  prayer  meetings  in 
the  neighboring  houses  so  that  the  non- 
church  people  could  find  room  in  the 
building.  God's  Spirit  had  never  been 
so  really  and  wonderfully  felt  in  West- 
ville.  People  acknowledged  its  power 
and  bowed  before  it. 

Into  this  atmosphere  of  waiting 
Ralph  Wallace  and  his  wife  came  on 
that  memorable  night.  I  do  not  think  it 
was  any  especial  eloquence  on  the  part 
of  the  preacher  that  made  possible  the 
remarkable  "conversion,"  as  all  West- 
ville  called  it,  of  Ralph  Wallace.  The 
evangelist  certainly  would  not  claim 
anything  of  the  kind  for  himself.  It 


74         MODERN  PAGANS 

was  an  unmistakable  instance  of  the 
power  of  God  to  take  a  life  and  subdue 
it  to  his  own  will.  God  has  been  doing 
this  thing  in  every  century  with  appar- 
ently unsavable  material.  He  will  con- 
tinue to  do  it  as  long  as  men  live  to 
prove  his  majestic  ownership  of  man's 
life.  "Not  by  might,  nor  by  power, 
but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts." 

That  night  Ralph  Wallace  let  the 
Spirit  have  complete  control  of  him. 
Afterward  he  confessed  he  had  deter- 
mined not  to  go  to  the  meetings  for  fear 
something  of  the  kind  might  come  to 
him.  In  a  voice  that  choked  with  happy 
emotion  he  confessed  to  Ambrose 
Spencer  his  faith  in  Christ.  This  was  in 
an  after  meeting  at  which  over  one  hun- 
dred men  and  women  acknowledged  for 
the  first  time  their  love  to  God  and  their 
desire  to  live  his  life. 

It  was  nearly  half-past  eleven  o'clock 
when  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wallace  entered 
their  own  home.  Mrs.  Wallace  walked 


MODERN  PAGANS         75 

like  one  in  a  dream.  She  seemed  to  fear 
it  would  not  prove  true.  Agnes  and 
John  had  gone  to  their  rooms,  but 
Harry  was  awake,  and  as  his  father  and 
mother  came  upstairs  he  called  out  to 
them.  They  came  in,  and  to  his  dying 
day  Ralph  Wallace  will  never  forget  the 
look  his  son  cast  at  him  as  the  light  first 
fell  on  his  redeemed  face. 

"Thank  God!  O  father,"  he  cried, 
''my  prayer  has  been  answered  soon!" 
Never  had  these  two  known  such  an  ex- 
perience. Mr.  Wallace  and  his  wife 
knelt.  For  a  moment  the  Divine  Pres- 
ence was  distinctly  felt  in  that  all- 
mastering  joy  which  I  am  sure  the 
angels  in  heaven  have  some  way  of  mak- 
ing men  feel  when  one  sinner  on  the 
earth  repents.  From  Ralph  Wallace's 
broken  prayer  as  it  ascended  that  night 
there  rose  a  spirit  of  fragrant  incense  to 
God,  for  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
events  in  the  world  was  beginning  there 
that  night — the  birth  of  a  new  family 
affection  founded  on  mutual  religious 


76         MODERN  PAGANS 

faith,  the  most  joyful  and  enduring  tie 
that  binds  human  hearts  together. 

We  have  not  time  here  to  relate  in  de- 
tail the  after  results  of  Ralph  Wallace's 
newly  begun  life.  The  meetings  came 
to  an  end.  The  evangelist  departed. 
The  papers  had  exhausted  their  ac- 
counts of  the  events  which  had  absorbed 
the  time  and  thought  of  the  public. 
Many  people  still  smiled  at  the  idea  of 
Wallace  as  a  churchman.  One  Sunday 
when  Harry  was  able  to  go,  he  and  his 
father  joined  the  church  to  which  Mrs. 
Wallace  had  for  so  many  years  be- 
longed. Everyone  noted  the  thoughtful 
happiness  of  Mr.  Wallace  and  his  son. 
As  time  went  on  there  in  Westville 
those  who  knew  him  best  noted  marked 
changes  in  his  habits.  He  became  an 
enthusiast  in  missions.  He  was  unex- 
pectedly humble  where  once  he  had  been 
proud  and  haughty.  His  once  constant 
habit  of  cynical  criticism  passed  out  of 
his  life.  People  said,  "Wallace  is  really 
a  changed  man.*'  He  was  more  than 


MODERN  PAGANS         77 

that.  He  was  a  new  man.  The  old 
man  had  passed  away.  All  things  had 
become  new.  The  prayer  circle  was 
formed.  The  Bible  was  honored.  Spir- 
itual things  were  given  high  place  in 
the  Wallace  household.  Mrs.  Wallace 
renewed  her  youth  and  her  church  life 
took  on  new  significance.  A  happy  wo- 
man, her  daily  prayer  was,  "O  God, 
bring  my  other  children  in  the  King- 
dom." Who  shall  say  that  prayer  will 
not  be  answered? 

We  are  permitted  to  read  a  portion 
of  a  letter  written,  soon  after  his  union 
with  the  church,  by  Mr.  Wallace  to  his 
college  classmate,  Albert  Andrews. 
This  letter  revealed  in  part  the  writer's 
sense  of  what  had  befallen  him. 

"I  have  already  told  you,  Andrews,  of 
the  astonishing  suddenness  with  which 
all  the  experience  came  to  me.  But  it 
is  no  more  than  has  happened  to  very 
many  other  souls  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  and  I  am  grateful  every  moment 
of  my  life  at  the  event,  no  matter  how  it 


78         MODERN  PAGANS 

occurred.  I  am  now  praying  that  my 
other  children,  Agnes  and  John,  may 
become  Christians  with  us.  They  did 
not  make  any  confession  during  the 
meetings.  But  I  am  living  in  great 
faith  that  they  will  enter  with  us  into 
the  living  way.  My  oldest  boy,  Harry, 
is  a  splendid  fellow.  He  is  preparing 
himself  for  a  physician  and  his  influence 
is  marked  and  strong  in  the  college.  As 
for  myself,  Andrews,  I  am  compelled 
to  confess  I  was,  up  to  this  experience,  a 
pagan.  There  is  no  other  word  to  de- 
fine my  life.  The  years  have  been 
largely  wasted.  Praise  God,  I  will  do 
my  utmost  to  atone  and  make  good.  A 
wonderful  thing  is  the  grace  of  God 
through  Christ.  I  owe  much,  very 
much  to  Ambrose  Spencer.  He  is  one 
of  God's  noblemen.  Since  he  left  us, 
his  little  girl  has  died  and  his  wife  is 
dangerously  ill.  No  doubt  you  have 
heard.  Let  us  join  our  prayers  for  him 
and  his.  I  ask  you  to  pray  with  us  for 
our  children.  I  have  been  a  poor  father 


MODERN  PAGANS         79 

to  them.  I  let  them  grow  up  without 
any  thought  of  their  eternal  life.  The 
only  dark  thought  I  have  now  in  the 
midst  of  all  my  joy  is  the  thought  that  I 
was  for  so  many  years  untrue  and  false 
to  my  trust  as  a  parent.  God  forgive 
that  also.  And  if  in  any  way  I  can 
make  it  good  now  to  my  family,  by  his 
grace  I  shall  do  it.  For  I  have  at  the 
age  of  fifty-five  begun  really  to  live. 
Mrs.  Wallace  joins  me  in  good  wishes  to 
Mrs.  Andrews  and  yourself  and  all  the 
family. 

"Your  old  classmate  and  friend, 
"RALPH  WALLACE/' 


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